Debian Now Defaults To Xfce Desktop

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Debian Now Defaults To Xfce Desktop

In a commit made for Debian's forthcoming 7.0 Wheezy release, Xfce is now the default desktop choice...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTE1NTk

[devius]

Oh boy.... this should be interesting. Unless no one cares anymore.

Anyway,

If you want all of the Debian Wheezy install archive though, it will take 73 CDs or 11 DVDs...

...or 34300 floppy disks, let's not forget. I think that a 1GB ISO makes sense because it fits nicely in a 1GB USB Flash disk

[molekiller]

I'm in it for XFCE replacing Gnome, but, seriously... who the hell does still use CD's? Do they still sell them..?

[aidanjt]

Does anyone seriously give a shit about CDs anymore? Honestly, I bought a 100 spindle of CDs about 4 years ago simply because they were dirt cheap, and they're not even 1/4 used. I've had practically no personal use for them beyond silly distros who wont move on with the times. I just want an image I can dd to USB sticks and not have to faff about.

[schmidtbag]

CDs are still really handy for sending large amounts of data to someone where you don't expect to get the medium back - its generally faster than uploading/downloading and you don't have to worry about losing a flash drive. They're also extremely handy for repairing computers. I personally use CDs a lot, however I bought a cake box of 100 maybe 6 years ago and I've still got maybe 20 or so to spare; I kept maybe only 15 of them total to myself.

As for those who don't like the distros that don't move on from CDs, haven't you heard of unetbootin?

I don't think anybody in their right mind would go beyond 6 discs to install an OS. I feel like there should only be 1 or 2 CDs involved with getting a debian setup prepared but DVDs are required for the rest of the OS (if you do offline installs). They ought to make dual layer DVD ISOs too. A blu ray ISO would also be nice.

Anyways, while I'm not a fan of XFCE, I think it's a good choice for a default. XFCE isn't heavy, but it isn't so lightweight that it's missing core features. It doesn't have a lot of customization, but it isn't restricting either. It isn't flashy, but it doesn't look vintage. While it is largely GTK based, it doesn't seem to have too many dependencies compared to GNOME or KDE. I'd say XFCE is pretty balanced and makes a good default for a distro that doesn't endorse a particular DE.

[moonlite]

How i wish there were some other, less opiniated, news site covering what phoronix covers. I'm only a few gnome bashing posts from unsubscribing.

[89c51]

How i wish there were some other, less opiniated, news site covering what phoronix covers. I'm only a few gnome bashing posts from unsubscribing.

Do you genuinely believe that Gnome doesn't deserve all the bashing?? Honestly i think Michael is really lenient towards them.

[devius]

Yeah, I also bought that mythical 100 discs spindle a few years ago and I also still have a lot of them unused. My use for DVDs used to be for backup purposes, but even that has lost relevance in the face of external USB disks. Anyway, optical media is clearly on its way out. And before someone invokes vinyl records, no I don't expect optical media to disappear completely, like floppy disks haven't disappeared, but I do expect a significant reduction in the number of drives/disks sold.

[devius]

Do you genuinely believe that Gnome doesn't deserve all the bashing??

Until Gnome 3.4 I didn't, but after reading what they are doing to Nautilus in the next version you can bash all you want.

[Hamish Wilson]

Anyways, while I'm not a fan of XFCE, I think it's a good choice for a default. XFCE isn't heavy, but it isn't so lightweight that it's missing core features. It doesn't have a lot of customization, but it isn't restricting either. It isn't flashy, but it doesn't look vintage. While it is largely GTK based, it doesn't seem to have too many dependencies compared to GNOME or KDE. I'd say XFCE is pretty balanced and makes a good default for a distro that doesn't endorse a particular DE.

I debate the customization point - it has the best settings environment I have ever used. I can change virtually everything on my desktop and yet do not get bogged down like I did when I tried KDE. Xfce of course has other issues but I think it is very good when it comes to customization.